It was at 8:13. I know it came from the direction of Lawndale going east down Sunnyside because I actually heard the whiz of the bullet and froze in such disbelief of what just happened. That ranks as most frightening thing to ever happen to me.

Thanks Wolf. I hope no one thinks I'm disrespecting the Chicago Police. Believe me, I get it. We're broke and in a bad state of affairs. They need to find a way to hire more police stat, and bring more officers to the NW side of Chicago.

If you all can, please attend the next Albany Park Neighbors meeting on Dec. 3. We're starting a neighborhood association to bring attention and resources to pressing issues in our 'hood. There hasn't been an all-neighborhood residents' coalition in a very long time—and man is it time!

Chigirl if you have seen my comments on other postings I'd let you know if I thought you were disrespecting the CPD. Trust me. I read the "tone" the statement was made in. Non derogatory. I didn't listen to the whole call so I can't say what they coded it as.

For those who are curious, 2 cars responded, one marked and one unmarked. The unmarked car seemed to be taking the lead. There were multiple calls and, whatever it was, it was at Sunnyside & Hamlin which was confirmed by multiple witnesses. From there two male Hispanics and one male black walked north from Sunnyside. My friends saw a flash of light from the *east* (if I'm reading the email correctly) which sounds like it fits their assessment (fired from the west, detonated in the east).

Thanks to everyone who called it in and the responding officers; keep my neighbors and friends safe! Stay alert!

Thanks to all who are reporting gunshots and any/all additional details here. I live just east of Western, just south of Montrose, but on several occasions over the past 3 years at this location I have heard distant but very clear gunshots that sound like they are coming from further west down Montrose.

I don't have any police, military, or hunting background to gauge how far away the gunshots may be, but they have been loud enough to awaken me in the middle of the night (twice this summer when the windows were open). It has been a bit disturbing to hear multiple shots (sometimes as many as a dozen), and sometimes involving what sound like different caliber/types of weapons (from quick, sharp cracks to deeper, booming shots). My old neighbors used to put on quite the unofficial July 4th barrage, so I'm fairly confident I'm not hearing fireworks.

For anyone who does have experience with gauging gunfire sounds and distance, is it possible that someone just over 1.5 miles away would hear gunshots such as these? I didn't hear any of the recently reported shots, but we have heard and called the police about them in the past (though we haven't been able to tell them anything useful). I haven't checked EveryBlock for gunfire reports closer to Montrose/Western, so it's possible there have been other, closer incidents I'm not aware of.

"For anyone who does have experience with gauging gunfire sounds and distance, is it possible that someone just over 1.5 miles away would hear gunshots such as these?"

From my year (!) of taking notes off the scanner I'd say no. When 911 calls come from > 3 blocks radius it's *generally* fireworks. Obviously there are other factors (humidity, foliage, snow cover, white noise from traffic, buildings and other obstructions). People who are very close seem to be able to distinguish with some accuracy.

Also, I'd say people are bad at differentiating one from the other while most think they're fairly good at it. That includes me. This is why one should *always* call it in if it's close enough to concern you.

1.5 miles away you will not hear a gun shot at all. Depending on the gun a block at most you will be able to tell if its a gun shot. More than that its most likely fireworks. Again depends on the caliber. Source: personal experience, and a friend who is a marine Sharp Shooter.

Thanks eric and support police, I appreciate your feedback. If I am hearing gunshots, then they are a lot closer than I thought. There's something about the sound quality and cadence of the "shots" that sounds different and less random than I think of for fireworks, but fireworks they very well may be.

@ms. Washington....i tend to disagree with you. I have had the chance of working almost every single neighborhood in chicago.....austin, englewood, west englewood, garfield ridge, albany park, rogers park, edgewater, humboldt park, gresham...and so on. ......I have always had the "blessing" of coming home here. Every day, i tend to look out my window and see not only neighbors of mine and residents walking their dogs almost at any hour of the day, others taking a stroll with their kids, and most special to me....a rainbow of children (different ethnic backgrounds) in the school play lot (bateman elem) playing without the horror of an open air drug market, without having to find discarded drug paraphenelia, or walk past through lot after lot of vacant and rundown rat infested foreclosed houses.

Unfortunately, what we do have in common throughout the city is gun violence due to spineless "urban terrorists" (gangs). alot less here compared to other neighborhoods i mentioned but one incident here is one too many ..like wise anywhere. i can guarantee you that even in the jefferson park and goldcoast areas...things are getting bad..which tends to show you that there is no where in the city that has gone unaffected.

It has always seemed thru posts and coments that we have a community who is willing to stand up and say this is my community and I call the police. Which I think is very important in keeping a neighborhood "ours". We should work on some sort of initiative such as a phone tree as people have mentioned or maybe hand out those " I call police" signs and ask people put them in their windows to show unity and unwillingness to let our neighborhoods fall to crime and violence. It can be scary to take a stand as an individual but much easier in groups.

@rachel...you are absolutely right...any step forward is a step in the right direction.

i believe that the worst feeling as a resident of any neighborhood is to feel alone and barricaded in by violence and unable to speak out against the threat. Unfortunately, there are neighborhoods like that in this city.

i cannot count how many number of times i've responded to the call of someone desperate for answers on how to solve crime in their neighborhood.....but when asked if they know their neighbors names or phone numbers....i get nothing. So the cycle of despair and dis-trust continues.

Albany park/Irving park and even jefferson park have been sacrificed to far too long now by the dwindling of patrol manpower. Which means, as residents,stepping up "our game" is necessary.

for example, my goal this year is purchasing a surveillance system of which i can access it via internet....and afterwards ...sharing the i.p address with my neighbors so at least one of us is vigilante sometime throughout the day.

How about getting appropriate levels of police patrol staffing on the Northwest Side? We pay for it, yet we have it sent somewhere else. Raise Hell with the mayor's office, the aldermen, and the CPD brass.

Next time it could be an innocent civilian that ends up on the business end of a criminal gang fired bullet.....

And how about coming together as upstanding residents, forming block clubs, taking positive action, walking the street to show these criminals (and the folks who rent to these criminals) that we will not tolerate this in our community.

Albany Park hasn't had one, united, strong neighborhood association in a long time. Please attend the upcoming meeting for Albany Park Neighbors, a new neighborhood association, on December 3.

With all due respect APMom there have been a lot of positive loitering events and meetings over the last year right near where these shots were fired last night. I'm sorry but there's little sympathy for AP coming from this end as most of the folks who complain about high crime in the neighborhood were also the first ones to put on red shirts in a show of "unity" with the Chicago Teachers Union in August. You can't keep spending what you don't have. The gig is up and if citizens don't wake up from their progressive stupor the whole city will be lost and those last remaining "fighters" will be left holding the bag.

Edgebrook has not been affected by gun violence yet. The break ins and teen problems are really starting to affect us though. No gangs, just "sweet kids". (Hope the sweet kids part came through with the sarcasm it was typed with)

I didn't say that, Chris - I'm on your side and appreciate all you do here to help. No one deserves any violence and crime. But citizens need to realize there are a finite number of dollars that are able to be spent across the city. A dollar more spent in one area means a dollar less in another area. That is, unless the city is attractive enough to bring new dollars (i.e. people) into the city, which Chicago is not doing - in fact she is losing residents.

So what would have a better return on investment, so to speak? Dumping more money into a failing education system (where the money doesn't even go to the "kids") or spending that money on more police boots on the ground, which could reduce violence, make neighborhoods safer, which makes them more attractive, which brings new residents in, which causes local spending to increase, which causes taxes collected to go up, which can be spent on new initiatives or supporting other areas of city spending. A circle can be vicious or it can be virtuous.

If people can't put their emotions aside in supporting whatever "cause" comes along demanding more money from taxpayers (which is exactly what they do) then how can we ever expect our political leaders to put together a thoughtful budget that best serves everyone? Safety and crime prevention are one of the easiest ways to win or lose a city, and hence gain or lose taxpayer dollars.

@ROBERT......not that I'm expecting an answer from you......but i'm wondering where the city is getting 55 million to honor maggie daley with a park with no oversight whatsoever. Thats a "finite" amount of dollars better spent else where...

@ SUPPORT....you quite right(with the exception of burglaries).....but it's at your door step. What is worse, is that the 16th district is so short handed that they are "borrowing" officers from other districts. God forbid it does increase, there is really nothing there as in "manpower" to stop it.To tell you the truth, i've been one of those substitutes. Working in that area, my sincere opinion....it only a matter of time.

Wolf 100% agree. Which is why I might get myself a present for Christmas. We had a lady who was robbed at gun point last year. I still feel safe as I am surrounded in police neighbors. If you don't mind me asking what district are you usually? And thanks for your service btw.

Work out of grand/central (025)...before that down south ..chicago lawn district (008)...and before that rogers park (024). Working these special initiatives (my days off) i worked almost every corner of this city.

@Robert S.: apologies if my earlier statement was interpretted as an attack. You'd earlier stated "I'm sorry but there's little sympathy for AP coming from this end as most of the folks who complain about high crime in the neighborhood were also the first ones to put on red shirts in a show of "unity" with the Chicago Teachers Union in August." For the record, I 100% support the teachers strike, and I do not think the negotiations the the city and teachers settled with have any bearing on violence in my neighborhood. Rahm still has $4 million left over from NATO contributions, there is a bus load of cash being thrown at a bike path, and there is a bus load of cash being thrown at a park in honor of Maggie (who I absolutely adored), but personally I think that money could be better spent on fighting crime and dealing with Chicago's gang problems. Personally, I think Maggie would prefer seeing the money spent on a park in her honor used to expand After School Matters to make a difference on the gang problem. But we have bigger problems in our community rather that argue of allocation of city budget and spending, so sorry if my comments was flippant.

This is kind of a tangent from something that was said earlier about which is more important money to go to education or police. I personally think education has a huge impact on crime and violence. In a much more long term way. It helps give role models (teachers and coaches) and helps give a kid choices about what they want to do with their life other than fall to the streets which some kids turn to out of hopelessness and perceived necessity. Education helps promote important life skills like team work and helps people be exposed to people from all sorts of backgrounds helping get rid of the "you me" mentality. Schools have all sorts of programs to help kids learn job skills and get jobs if college isn't in the cards, and if it is help kids get there. They have programs to help those who need a second chance or girls who have gotten pregnant but aren't ready to give up. What happens to those kids if those programs aren't available? They turn to gangs and violence. Police are very important but are only a temporary fix. They are a necessity to clean up the problems society has already created.

Yes, because the people doing the shootings are concerned about being educated... Anyway wolf thanks again for the service. I for one appreciate the police. We gotta talk, I know officers in everyone of those districts.

Has anyone said they don't support or appreciate police? I definently do both. I'm just saying it would be NICE if we didn't need so manyou because ideally there wouldn't be as much crime and violence. In fact I believe I said they are very important and a necessity. So what DO you think people doing the shooting are concerned about?

Nope no one said they didn't appreciate the police, and I didn't imply that you or anyone else did. What are the people doing the shooting concerned about? nothing, but keeping up their "tough guy" attitude. Neighborhood reputation. That's it. IMHO.